Scottish Tory conference already had clouds hanging over it following the farce of Douglas Ross’s decision to submit a no confidence letter in Boris to Graham Brady, then withdraw it in light of his leadership during the Ukraine crisis. After finally smoothing things out and securing Boris’s attendance, Tories north of Hadrian’s Wall might have hoped their annual meet-up might now go ahead without any further hitches. It’s not to be…

Douglas Ross today missed First Minister’s Questions because he’s lost his voice and his throat has “seized up” just days before his planned speech. The party hopes he will be able to still make a speech, though it’s set to be “shortened”. Coincidentally Peter Chapman MSP has just deleted a tweet promising that Ross would be a great voice for his constituents…

DT Douglas Ross MSP: RT Peter Chapman: Best of luck to Douglas Ross MSP in his campaign - will make an excellent MP for the area and give a voice to Unionis… https://t.co/YtULnhLSbM

— Tweets MPs Delete (@deletedbyMPs) March 17, 2022

Already the Tories are having to work around this inconvenience. The Stooshie Politics Podcast was meant to have Ross on only to substitute him for Andrew Bowie. What is it about former May PPS Bowie and his leaders losing their voice?